Little White Bull - British Fiction in the 50s and 60s

Description

Little White Bull takes a fresh look at the times before the day before yesterday, not the end times but the new beginnings, and tries to show how British fiction grappled with subjects as thorny and diverse as the impact of mass immigration and a new kind of rootless working-class character uncontained by previous conceptions of him or herself, and apparently ready to go to war over them. This exciting and readable book presents the fifties and sixties as a crucible of new departures, asking what remains and continues from those decades into the cultural present. It takes the form of a series of thematic essays each of which discusses the work of an individual or group of novelists. Writers examined in this book are Paul Ableman, Brian Aldiss, Kingsley Amis, J.G. Ballard, Lynn Reid Banks, John Berger, John Braine, Angela Carter, Nell Dunn, Gillian Freeman, Barry Hines, B.S. Johnson, Doris Lessing, Colin Macinnes, Michael Moorcock, Iris Murdoch, V.S. Naipaul, Bill Naughton, Edna O'Brien, Harold Pinter, Samuel Selvon, Alan Sillitoe, David Storey, Jack Trevor Story, Leslie Thomas, Alexander Trocchi, John Wain, Keith Waterhouse, Raymond Williams and Colin Wilson.

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About Author

John Muckle is a fiction writer, poet and critic. He is the author of four books of fiction, including The Cresta Run (Galloping Dog Press, 1987), Cyclomotors, an acclaimed short illustrated novel set in the early 1950s (available through Shearsman Books), and the novels London Brakes (Shearsman, 2010) and My Pale Tulip (Shearsman, 2012). His first full-length poetry collection, Firewriting and Other Poems appeared from Shearsman in 2005, a late follow-up to It Is Now As It Was Then (with Ian Davidson, Mica Press/Actual Size, 1983). Another notable collaboration was Bikers (with Bill Griffiths, Amra Imprint, 1990). In the eighties he created the Paladin Poetry imprint and was general editor of its flagship anthology, The New British Poetry (eds. D'Aguiar, Allnutt, Edwards, Mottram, Paladin, 1988). He has been for ten years a regular contributor to PN Review as reviewer and essayist. He lives in London, and works as a teacher.